I've been bit by the rod building bug, and am about to embark on building a 7-piece graphite travel rod, a 8' 3/4wt, moderate/fast blank. I've found a few different guide spacing tables that include 8' rods; does the fact that the blank is 7 pieces impact the spacing at all, beyond just trying to stick as close as possible to the spacing suggested by the tables? I.e., if a guide ends up too c
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Hey Friends, I tried euro nymphing on my 10' 5wt rod this past weekend and I must admit it was exhilarating to feel the hit of the fish. Caught two rainbows and a few creek chubs, it was a lot of fun. So I'm thinking about building a euro rod. I see CTS makes a euro blank but I can't find any reviews on it. I saw some folks have built euro rods with the Affinity X or MX and liked them. Wonderi
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Hello, I have reached out to NFC some time ago and they haven’t reached back out regarding their recommended guide spacing. Is there a chart out there available for fly rod spacing. Have several gamma betas in 7,9,10,11 and a iconoglass 8 wt if that is any help. Thanks
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Many, many years ago when Cabela's got out of selling roadbuilding components I bought 30 or so Tip glue tubes. You know the red lipstick looking deals. Pop cover off heat and put cover back on. Now, everything for sale looks like a glue stick for craft guns. Are they the same compound or make up? Can I use a glue stick or do I need to buy specific tip glue?? Thanks - Between giving away and us
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When locating running guides on a long(11'), ultralight rod where casting power/distance is not as important as light swing weight, how would you balance a better static load versus using one less running guide and at least one less wrap on the tip half of the rod? I am building the NFC LMX FANY1102-4. I used a guide spacing chart from another vendor's 11' 2 weight Euro blank since it was all
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Hello! I recently purchased my first two-piece Surf Rod which was a Tsunami Trophy II 9'. I know it isn't a custom rod, but I figured I'd ask here since most of you are Rod Builders, and are way more experienced with Rods than me. I noticed at the end of the Ferrule there was a foam plug. When I was handling the bottom half of the rod, the plug got slightly pushed in at an angle of maybe 1/4"
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Hello from the Denver area. I'm brand new to this hobby and I have a gazillion questions. My back ground is in automotive, mostly painting. I have run body shops for a while now as working on the shop floor is not practical as I get older and more beat up. I already have 2 expensive and time consuming hobbies in hot rods and fishing. However, I saw a custom hand built rod at a fund raiser an
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I just finished making a 'new' rod out of a a St. Croix Mojo Bass factory rod that was broken off about an inch above the handle. The part I could salvage was 5'10" long; the power is medium heavy. My Steps: a.) Decided on a Spinning Rod over a Casting Rod (and to use only components I had on hand). b.) Removed factory guides and extra epoxy with a razor blade. Carefully. c.) Scraped
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I am building a Rod Geeks 3wt 7' c4 fly rod and would like to be able to use it as both a fly rod and spinning rod. What would you recommend for a grip? I plan to use Seaguide stripper with stainless insert and round wire fly guides for the rest of the guide train. Any recommendations on guide sizing and stripper size would be helpful. Any recommendations on the build would be helpful. I have ver
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NOTE: Photos are now available at: Photos, Miscellaneous, Jim Kinkennon, starting at "rod repair 1" and transiting left. Address of first pic: While pier fishing in Panama City Beach, I experienced a blank fracture. I was fishing a 9' G1000 graphite spinning rod rated for approx. 1-3 oz. lure wt., using 20lb. braid loaded on a PENN 5500SS reel. I had already had wind knots. I
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I have questions about standard graphite slip over type ferrules and when to wrap and epoxy them I see people wrapping and epoxying before installing them together I see people slipping them together wrapping and epoxying them what is the correct procedure to wrap and epoxy a ferrule?
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Hello all, I have a NFC CP-1342-4 blank coming in today. It is 160in, 1/8-1/2lb lure weight, 6-10lb line, 4pc light moderate blank. My plan is to build another centerpin rod for steelhead and salmon for great lakes river fishing off lake Ontario, Huron and Superior. I am looking to put a 22in handle on it. It will be paired with a 4.5-5in centerpin reel. I am planning to not use a tip to
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When I was into bike building and metal fabrication I spent so much time cruising forums and blogs of various builders and fabricators and I always fell hardest down the rabbit hole for chronicles of builds. To watch the build progress and read the conversations that happened along the way was amazing. To watch someone's vision unfold over time was a great experience and basically represented fue
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I have built a few rods with the AT microwave guides and like the ease of setting them up on the rod. Why don't more builders use these compared to the regular style?
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I have some inexpensive 9’6” (10-30 lb) 2 piece factory rods setup for trolling salmon, and am thinking to modify the current guide configuration to a spiral wrap. This would involve moving 1 existing guide and adding 1 more guide, and both would be the transition guides in the spiral (successive 60 degree offsets). My question involves having the spiral transition guides span the ferrule.
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I've been researching online prior to starting my first fly rod build and noticed that quite a few of the high end commercially available rods have a trim band wrap at the base of the tip top . Is this needed for a functional reason or is it just bling ? I will be attempting a 9 ft 5wt . Thanks Ron
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I've posted a couple times before but never have made an intro. Recently realizing it's ok to post pics here I thought I'd throw a few out there of a switch rod I have just finished. My Name is Bob and I'm from the Yukon Territory Canada. This rod is my 11th and if I had to pick what I have the most trouble with it would be the epoxy. Seems it's a fight every time but I'm slowly getting more c
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Perhaps this has been discussed before. What generalizations can we make about the quantity and spacing of guides on a fly rod based on: 1. length 2. action I've noticed many antique bamboo fly rods have fewer guides than modern glass/carbon. Maybe this is because a slow action rod bends evenly along its' length to a greater degree than a fast action rod and therefore the radius of the ben
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I have cut a one piece rod and installed a spigot ferrule. I would like to test cast the blank/rod before finishing the grip, guide wraps and decorative wraps. I have wrapped the female ferrule very tightly with nylon thread. Do I need to epoxy the ferrule wraps before test casting?
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In most of the video's I've watched, ferrules are wrapped towards the open end of the ferrule. Even when a guide foot is close to a ferrule they typically start at the guide side of the foot and wrap towards the ferrule end. Why is that, and is it important? It seems like it would be easier to start near the ferrule end and get four or five wraps down, and then carefully and neatly push the w
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I am teaching a class in rod building for Project Healing Waters. We are to the guide placement section and had a question on formulas for guide placement. The Hexrod site has two calculators to compute the spacing one is based on Dale Clemons book, the other on Wayne Cattanach's book. I have both books and can show them the Clemons formula. But for the life of me I can't find the formula in
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I am building a 7'6" 3wt fiberglass fly rod that has spigot ferrules. I have found a lot of mixed reviews on reinforcing wraps on the blank at the ferrules. Does the female end need reinforcement and if so how long should it be? (The entire length of the male portion?) Does the male end need reinforcement and how long should that be as well? On this blank the spigot is approximately 2.5 inch
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I received today the replacement section for my 8 weight, 9 foot CTS rod blank. I'm using a #16 Fuji KR stripping guide, #5 make brand eco guides, and a Snake brand #5 tip top. Anyone have guide spacing on the CTS blank? Of course I'll be doing a static test. A starting point would good though. The reel will be a Lamson Guru II. Oh, and thanks Herb, for all of your help.
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Gonna make my 1st travel rod. I have everything I need - 2-pc blank, guides, grips, seat, etc - any tips from experienced travel rod builders? Is there a rod maker article that covers travel rods (I have all the issues just don't recall if there's a volume/issue that talks to travel rods). I'm assuming I just layout everything the same as I would on a 1-pc, but when it comes to guide placement do
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Hello All, I am about to start work on a 80-130 bent butt rod. The intended use is for drifting large live bait for Bluefin Tuna.....large/mediums....under 72 inches from a small, 24ft, boat. Rod will be bent butt and fish will be fought in a swivel rod holder....not on stand up gear. The blank I am using a Seeker CTSF63XXXH....an Aftco #4 bent butt (storabutt) paired with a Penn 80VISW....my
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After researching here I purchased a Rainshadow Revelation 6wt 10ft 2 piece to build a vertical jigging rod. I wrapped the guides up last night and also wrapped the last 2.5 inches of the blank up to the tip top in fluorescent yellow (as a visual indicator). Is there any issue with wrapping that much of the rod tip?
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I'm starting a build of a 10' 3wt CTS Affinity X (thanks to Herb for turning me on to CTS!) with 12 guides including the striper. I was using a guide placement calculated from Jim Cooper (thanks Jim!) to get me started in the rough placement and then fine tune from there. My question is when I set up the guides using Jim's spreadsheet, it puts 5 guides in section 1 (top), then 3 guides in secti
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Hi all I was about to lay out the guide spacing on the first 3 sections put together. I noticed the cts is about 1 inch longer than my other 9ft blanks for the same sections is that something I need to worry about? It is my first fly rod build. I was going to use the sage x 9ft 4wt spacing listed on the sage website .. any advice is greatly appreciated
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Latest build places guide about on the ferrule. First I have encountered this. Have not paid much attention to how other rods have been wrapped in this situation. If I wrap as usual I will have about 1/4 inch gap between my ferrule wrap and guide wrap. Do I do that. Or wrap it all as one. I typically do a trim wrap on both ends of the ferrule and a trim wrap on the guide wrap. If I do as one wra
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So, I started building rods a few years ago. Some of my fishing buddies started urging me to build some for them. I look at this site, and I see how technical everyone is, very technical with the guides, how many, where to place and weight. the weight of the guides! Rods and there flexes, composites, graphite, fiberglass, actions and power. So the other day a co-worker wanted a 7ft inshore rod, M
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